


Unlocked Memories

by cottagepiesupremacy



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Desi Harry Potter, Gen, Marauders Friendship (Harry Potter), Post-Canon, dorlene, jily, wolfstar
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-23
Updated: 2021-02-23
Packaged: 2021-03-13 03:21:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,308
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29644998
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cottagepiesupremacy/pseuds/cottagepiesupremacy
Summary: Harry is cooking dinner when Teddy comes in with some old boxes belonging to his dad. They find an old photograph of their parents and their friends on a camping trip. They discover that one of the people in the photograph is Mary MacDonald, the only one who is still alive. They meet up and she tells Teddy and the Potter family about her lost friends.Check out my tumblr:tumblr
Relationships: Harry Potter/Ginny Weasley, James Potter/Lily Evans Potter, Marlene McKinnon/Dorcas Meadowes, Sirius Black/Remus Lupin
Comments: 10
Kudos: 47





	Unlocked Memories

**Author's Note:**

> I do not support JK Rowling or her transphobic views, this is a safe space

“James Sirius Potter, get down from there! I can’t send you to your first day at Hogwarts with a broken leg. Imagine what they’d think of me.” Harry shouted from the French-doors out of the kitchen, overlooking the sprawling garden.

It was early evening in late August, and the sun was still high in the sky, casting a golden haze across the garden, the light reflecting off of the leaves of the trees. In one of these trees, he saw that his son had managed to get halfway up and was alarmingly perched next to a rather thin looking branch.

James simply nodded and instead of climbing down like a sensible person might, he jumped off and landed on the ground with a thud.

“Honestly, I don’t know why I bother,” Harry muttered to himself, walking across the grass and he helped his son up, who remarkably remained unscathed. He picked him up and tossed him over his shoulder into a fire-mans lift. James started laughing and began to lightly punch his back.

“Let me go!” He giggled, squirming to try and get out of Harry’s grasp. “I don’t want to go inside.”

“Well, you should have thought about that before you decided to fling yourself out of a tree.” He replied, matter-of-factly, and he put James down onto the kitchen counter. “Anyway, dinners nearly ready. Why don’t you make yourself useful and go get your brother and sister for me.” He said and ruffled his hair.

“Ugh, don’t do that.” He grumbled, trying to smooth out his hair, but Harry could still see the grin across his face. He slipped off the counter and ran up the stairs.

“Albie! Lily! Tea’s ready!”

Harry returned to the dinner, stirring the Dhal curry in the pot, letting the aroma fill the kitchen. He really did enjoy cooking, which was just as well, as however much he loved her, Ginny was a terrible cook. He personally found it therapeutic, especially after a long day in the Auror office, he didn’t often admit it, but he was glad he was leaving. He took the job immediately after the war, so he was constantly in the front line. He didn’t mind fighting, especially if it were for a just cause, but as he was getting older, he felt it would be best to have a safer job. Both for his own peace of mind, and as his kids were growing up.

The Defence Against the Dark Arts post had opened up at Hogwarts, and he accepted the role immediately. McGonagall had made arrangements, meaning he would be able to use the floo network to get home every evening, so he didn’t have to stay away from his family. He was also glad to be taking the job because it meant that he would be able to see Neville more often, as he was the Herbology professor. It would be good to see him again, they kept in touch, of course, but he didn’t see him as often as he saw the other people from his school days.

“Wow, that smells lovely,” Ginny said, bringing the Quidditch things out of the garden and placing them by the door. “Apparently, it’s going to rain tonight, so I thought I’d bring these in.”

“Doesn’t look like it.” He said looking out of the window, seeing a perfect blue sky, laced with peachy orange as the sun was beginning to set.

“Well, gotta trust the muggle weather forecast, Dad swears by it.” She laughed, and she wrapped her arms around his waist from behind and kissed his neck.

He turned the heat down on the stove and turned around so that he was facing her, he kissed her, deep and slow. She hummed gently and ran her pale fingers through his dark hair, slightly peppered with grey.

“Ugh, get a room.”

He turned around, still holding his wife tight and saw Teddy grinning at them, his hair was turquoise today, and it curled over the front of his head and was getting in his eyes. He had a pile of dusty cardboard boxes precariously balanced in his arms, and he put them down on the kitchen table.

“What have you got there?” He asked, gesturing to the boxes.

“Oh, I was just going through some of Dad’s old stuff, Grandma managed to find the key to his old flat from when he lived in London. Apparently, he lived with Sirius. According to her, there are some photos and things in here that I thought you’d like to see as well, I haven't opened it yet though,” Teddy started stroking the tape on the top box, gently picking at it, but not actually trying to open it. “There’s some stuff here of your mum and dad as well.” He looked up at him.

“Really? Well, we shall definitely go through those after dinner.” Harry said he couldn’t keep the smile off of his face. He hadn’t seen many pictures of his mum and dad, he had the wedding one of course, which sat pride of place on the mantlepiece above the fireplace in the living room, but that was about it.

It was a couple of hours later and the kids were up in bed, despite James’ protests. Harry, Ginny and Teddy were sat around the coffee table in their living room, sat on the unbelievably soft sofa, with a glass of wine in hand (apart from Teddy who wasn’t old enough, much to his disappointment). They heard the rain pelting down outside, knocking against the glass of the windows. The boxes were staring at them on the coffee table, waiting to be opened. Part of him didn’t want to, it felt like pandora's box. It had been thirty-five years since his parents had died, and it felt weird that after so long he was finally going to find something new.

Sensing his discomfort, Ginny held onto his hand and gently ran a thumb over his knuckles.

“Right, let's get this open.” She said, ripping off the tape.

The box opened and as they lifted the flaps, a pile of dust fell onto the table. They looked into it and stared. It was a gold mine of long-forgotten memories of people with the weight of the world on their shoulders.

He reached in and his fingers settled on a photograph of eight teenagers, around seventeen years old sat on a log at the beach behind a crackling fire. On the back in a neat script was: August ‘77.

He recognised some people. His eyes immediately fell onto his father, he looked an awful lot like him, he really did understand when people said that they looked alike. He was wearing a t-shirt and worn denim shorts, stopping above his knees. His hair was wild, sticking out in a variety of directions and his eyes were crinkled up due to the manic grin on his face. He had a beer in one hand and his arm was slung over the shoulder of Sirius.

Sirius was obviously younger than when he had last seen him, but it was clearly him, his face wasn’t marked with the lines that twelve years in Azkaban had caused. His dark, wavy hair was half tied up, but most of it fell over his face. He wore a tank top, showing off his arms (which at this point weren’t covered in tattoos). He had a similar grin to his father and his face was picture-perfect, his sharp cheekbones reflecting the light of the fire. He had one arm over his dad’s shoulder, with a beer in his hand and his other arm was around Remus’ waist, who was tucked into his side.

Remus was also smiling, but it was softer and more subtle than that of Sirius and his Dad. He was less scarred and didn’t have the gash across his face that he had when they had met. His face was speckled with acne and he wore a knitted jumper, that he had rolled up to his elbows. He looked an awful lot like Teddy, his long limbs pressed up against his body. He held a bottle of beer in one hand and his other hand was on Sirius’ thigh.

In front of his Dad, he saw Peter. He felt sick. He had his back against his legs his father’s hand with the beer bottle was on his shoulder. He was smiling, like the rest of the group, his round face illuminated by the fire. Harry couldn’t look at him any longer, without anger bubbling up in his chest like it always did whenever it did whenever he thought about Peter. How could someone that happy and comfortable with his friends be responsible for taking everything away from him? Taking everything away from them.

Next to his Dad on the other side of Sirius, was his mother. Her hair was done in two plaits that fell over her shoulders and she had a fringe that was brushing her eyes. She was looking tentatively up at his Dad, he wondered if they were together at this point. She had dark make-up around her eyes, and a dark jacket over her shoulders, evidently going through a goth phase.

Next to her, was a dark-skinned girl with a short afro. He vaguely recognised her as Dorcas Meadowes from the photo of the Order of the Phoenix, where Mad-eye had pointed her out. She had a hand on his mother’s knee and had her head on top of the girl who sat on the floor in front of her, who he recognised to be Marlene McKinnon, also from the photo. She had light feathered hair and had a similar grin to that of his Dad and Sirius. Her legs were stretched out across the ground and her feet were dangerously close to the fire.

Next to Marlene, in front of his mum, was a girl wearing a hijab, that he didn’t know the name of, but he recognised her from the photo of the Order. She was saying something to Marlene, and she had her legs tucked into her body. She had large doe eyes and was pointing at the fire.

“Do you know who this is?” He said, finally glancing away from the photo. This was going to be a long evening if this was how long it took for him to look over one photograph. He pointed at the girl he didn't recognise.

“No, have no idea,” Ginny said, taking the photo from his hand and inspecting it closely. “Perhaps my Mum or Dad will know.” She smiled up at him and then passed the photo to Teddy.

It was odd seeing his parents like that. He had the photo from their wedding, which he loved dearly, but it was clearly staged, not that that took anything away from it, but it was weird seeing them in such a natural setting. So carefree and, well, happy. All of them were.

The next night, he and Ginny lay in bed. She lay on her front, arm over his chest and she was playing with his beard.

“You really need to shave.” She said, sleepily.

“What, don’t you like it?”

“Well, you look hot, you suit it, but it gets in the way. It tickles.”

“We’ll see about that.” He laughed.

He moved his head down and met her and he kissed her hard, ensuring his beard made as much contact with her face as possible. She started laughing and she kissed him back, then moved away.

“Alright, alright. I can deal with it for a bit longer.” She admitted, “As long as you don’t grow it out like Dumbledore then I’ll be happy.”

“Oh, it will be a while before that happens.”

“Good.” She sighed deeply, “I spoke to my Mum the other day, asked about the photo.”

“Oh, right. What did she say?”

“She said that her name is Mary MacDonald. Currently lives on the outskirts of Birmingham.”

“Wait, she’s still alive?” He didn’t realise that there were people who knew his parents that he hadn’t met, that were still around. Especially someone that knew them outside of the war.

“Yeah, she went off of the wizarding map for a while, no one could track her down, people thought she had just simply vanished, but she came back into the system when her eldest daughter went to Hogwarts, her youngest is only a couple of years older than Teddy.”

“Oh, brilliant. Do you know if we will be able to get into contact with her?”

“I’m glad you asked that.” She said, tapping her fingers against his chest, “Mum said that after she mentioned that you and Teddy had found the stuff, she said that Mary would love to come down and meet the two of you and have a chat about both of your parents.”

“Of course, I shall speak with Molly to see if we can sort something out.”

“It should be good, to find out more about them.”

“Yeah, yeah.” He sighed, he couldn't believe that this was actually happening.

Ginny gave him a quick kiss and held onto him tight, so that he wouldn’t drift off and nestled her head into his neck.

A week later, they were all sat around the dining table under the skylight, anxiously anticipating the doorbell. Mary had agreed to come and visit, and she was bringing her daughters with her as well. He was sat next to Ginny and Teddy. Albie was sat on his lap and Lily was on Ginny’s, James was stood up on his chair, leaning against Teddy. Teddy had his hair a light brown today, he usually stuck to bright, fluorescent colours, but he decided that he should make his hair the same colour as his Dad’s.

The doorbell rang and he immediately got up, lifting Albie off of his lap and sat him up on the table. Teddy got up as quickly as he did, his chair scraping across the kitchen floor and they went over to the door. He could feel his heart in his chest, and he took a deep breath and opened the door with a click.

Mary was exactly like an older version of the girl in the photograph, which made sense, he didn’t quite know why he was surprised by that. Mary looked as though she had seen a ghost, looking at him and Teddy, although she hid it pretty well. She was short, with a slight frame, with a couple of wrinkles around her eyes and mouth. Behind her were two young women, who he assumed must be her daughters, one was a splitting image of her mother, but taller, exactly like the young Mary in the photograph. The other was slightly taller again and she had evidently just come from the Quidditch pitch, her dark hair was cut short and shaved on one side.

“Mary Fayed-MacDonald, pleasure to finally see you again.” She held out a hand, and Harry took it. Her skin was soft against his. “Gosh, you look so much like him... older.”

She held his face in her hands and she shook her head in wonder, “except your eyes, you have your…”

“…Mother’s eyes, yeah, I get that a lot.” He laughed.

“I suppose you're tired of hearing that by now?”

“Oh, no, not at all. It’s nice, like they’re still here, you know.”

“Of course, of course.” She took a deep breath, which was shaking slightly. “You’re Dad would be glad that people still remember his face, the arrogant git.” She joked and tapped him lightly on the cheek and then she turned to face Teddy and held out a hand, and he took it.

“You’re so much like your Dad as well.”

“Well, I can change my appearance at will, so don’t know how much that really counts.”

“Of course, I remember him telling me about that, he was really proud to have you, you know.”

“My Dad spoke to you about me?” Teddy asked, slightly taken aback, his eyes were getting slightly damp.

“Yeah, we sent owls to each other, every so often. Didn’t see him much after the first war, though.” She smiled at Teddy, tears in her eyes as well, she wiped a tear off of Teddy’s cheek with her thumb and turned to face Harry again.

“I’m so sorry, for, you know, not joining the war, just, well, we lost so much the first time around. Snapped my wand in half after Sirius went to Azkaban, can’t believe they got that wrong, I never liked the ministry, but…” She just shook her head, still in disbelief. “Haven’t done magic since. I had two young kids to look after when the war broke out a second time, and I don’t think I could do it again. I hate to think what it must have been like for you, I should have reached out, at the very least.” Her eldest daughter with the shaved head put a reassuring hand on her shoulder. Mary turned to face Teddy again, “was never as brave as your Father.”

Teddy balled his sleeves up his hands and wiped his eyes desperately, taking in a shaky breath. Mary wrapped him up in a tight hug.

Fifteen-year-old Harry might have been angry at her for not helping during the war, or for not showing her face after all those years. However, now that he had kids of his own and he had a chance to come down since the days of war and had lived a life of relative normality, he really didn’t blame her. In fact, if he was in her position, he might have done the same thing.

“Don’t worry about it, I completely understand. Why don’t we sit down, get out of the doorway?” He said, moving out of the way. He shut the door behind them, and they walked over to the dining table and Mary had her hand on Teddy’s back as she guided him to a seat.

“I don’t think we introduced ourselves,” the shorter daughter said to Harry, “My name’s Dorcas and my sister is Marlene.”

Harry smiled, happy that the other’s in the photograph had had their legacy passed down as well.

“Lovely to meet you both.” He said as he sat back down on his seat.

“This is my wife Ginny.” He said, gesturing to Ginny sat next to him.

“You must be Marlene Fayed. Recognise you from the Harpies, we just missed each other didn’t we.” Ginny said, to a rather surprised looking Marlene who had sat down opposite her, she just nodded.

“This is James Sirius,” Harry said, pointing at his son, who had sat next to Marlene and was looking up at her in awe. He thought he’d better mention his middle name. “And this is Albus and over there is Lily.” Lily was running across the kitchen with the biscuit tin and put it out on the table.

“Thank you, Lily, that is very kind of you,” Dorcas said, smiling down at Lily.

“Got the gang back together.” Mary laughed, looking over the children.

They sat and chatted about their respective lives. He learnt that after the war, Mary met a muggle, who then became her husband. They moved to a small suburb on the outside of Birmingham and she got a job as a secretary in the local law firm. Dorcas was training to become a healer and Marlene was a professional Quidditch player and had a girlfriend called Sophia (much to James’ disappointment) who was a baker. Marlene, Dorcas, and Teddy were busy talking about Hogwarts, surprised at how they had missed each other, considering they were all there at the same time but in different years.

“Do you want to see the photograph?” He asked Mary after they had all settled down. He figured he shouldn’t bombard her with questions straight away, as this was probably her first time seeing the stuff in the boxes since 1981.

“Oh, go on then love, let’s take a look and see what ridiculous things we were wearing.” She laughed and she held out a hand and took the picture out of Harry’s hand.

“Fuck.” She said, and she let out a small sob, but quickly regained her composure, “Sorry kids, didn’t mean to swear.”

“Oh, it’s fine.” Harry said, “with Teddy and Uncle Ron around, they’re used to it.”

“Oi, you’re worse than me!” Harry just rolled his eyes to Teddy’s response, although he probably wasn’t wrong.

“Well, your dad did have quite the mouth on him.” Mary chuckled looking fondly at Teddy.

“Really, Professor Lupin?” Harry said, he always saw Remus as he was in his third year, a very mild-mannered man, but then he remembered later on during the war and outside of the classroom, he could get quite angry.

“Oh yes, when he wrote to me, he said he found it very difficult to not swear in front of the kids, but I’m sure he was a natural. He and your mother were the sole reason any of us passed our OWLs or our NEWTs. Although your Dad and Sirius could probably do it with their eyes closed, it really was bloody annoying.”

“I mustn’t have inherited that.” Harry laughed, “I relied mostly on my friend Hermione for my OWLs, never got round to doing my NEWTs.”

“You’re really not filling me with confidence,” Teddy said, who had his exams in the coming year.

“Oh don’t worry.” Dorcas said, “I got through it fine, people only tend to talk about the worst parts about it.”

“Easy for you to say.” Marlene laughed, “I pretty much failed all my NEWTs, except for Charms, so it was a good job I got recruited, or else I would have been screwed.”

“Well, you’ve got me to help you, Teddy, only in Defence Against the Dark Arts and possibly in Transfiguration, mind you. You’re on your own in Potions.”

“You didn’t even sit your exams; how did you even manage to get the teaching position?” Teddy said, exasperated.

“Because I’m the _chosen one_.” He joked, and Ginny clipped him over the back of the head.

Mary looked over the scene in front of her, it reminded her so much of being back in school, with her old friends. Harry was so much like James, not just in looks but also personality, with his unapologetic kindness and his sense of humour. Teddy was also a lot like Remus, he had a soft side and spent most of his time being mildly frustrated by his friends, but secretly enjoying every bit of it. it also didn’t help that her own children had very much embodied the persona of their namesakes.

She looked over the photograph in her hands, with Dorcas’ writing on the back. How old were they then, sixteen, seventeen? It all seemed so long ago, so much had changed, yet it all felt like yesterday.

“I suppose you want to know a bit more about this unruly bunch?” She said, looking at Harry. He really was so much like James, his brown skin radiating nothing but warmth and his hair an uncontrollable mess, which he had embraced wholeheartedly. He had a short beard, and both it and the hair on his head was speckled with grey. She remembered that James had a couple of grey hairs as well, probably due to stress, she suspected Harry was very much the same. His eyes, gosh, his eyes. So much like Lily, her calm but firey presence was still there, it was like looking into a time capsule. Looking at all of them sat there, it was all very overwhelming, but she couldn’t let it get to her. Harry and Teddy had the right to know about their parents, and her friends had a right for their kids to know them.

“Yeah, if that’s okay with you.” Harry said, “I understand that this is the first time you’re looking at them since they were taken.”

Always so considerate.

“It’s fine, where shall we start.” She looked over the photo. “Well, there’s James, as you are probably aware.” Harry nodded, and James Sirius (a very fitting name, she had thought) had run over and was looking eagerly over her shoulder. “In this picture, he is probably slightly tipsy, just before, he, Sirius and Marlene had a competition to see who could chug a bottle of butterbeer the fastest, James won, he always did.” She laughed at the memory, “afterwards Sirius had pushed him into the sand and insisted that he had cheated. In actuality, it was always Remus who could drink everyone under the table, but he didn’t participate so that he wouldn’t bruise their egos. It was those messy nights where I was glad that I don’t drink.” She looked up and saw that Harry and Teddy were looking intently at her, absorbing in any information that she told them.

“In this, he is trying his hardest not to notice Lily looking up at him. They got together a couple of weeks after this, pretty much as soon as school started again. It was a long time coming. I remember in sixth year, being sat in the dorms, having to listen to Lily have a several hour-long rant about how she didn’t have a crush on James Potter, despite all evidence pointing to the contrary.”

“I heard that she wasn’t his biggest fan earlier on,” Harry said, looking over the photograph.

“Well, no, she wasn’t. He was quite annoying up until late fifth year until he decided to get his act together, but even before then, she still thought he had this charm about him, although she never admitted it.

“At this point, she was going through her 'rebellious phase'” She used air-quotes when describing this. “I say that sarcastically because all that really entailed was too much eye-liner and sneaking into the kitchens in the middle of the night, where she often bumped into the boys.”

“I never really did much of that.” Harry said, looking off into the distance, “perhaps I should have, but Hermione would insist that I would be overworking the house-elves, so perhaps it wouldn’t have been a good idea.”

“Oh, I’ve gone into the kitchens loads of times.” Teddy said, looking rather smug “I suppose being in Hufflepuff has its advantages.”

“I’ll pretend I didn’t hear that, can’t have my godson stealing from the kitchen while I’m working there,” Harry said, smirking at Teddy.

“You literally gave me the map?” Teddy exclaimed, lifting his arms in defeat.

“Well, perhaps I should take it off you, that’s what your Dad did to me.”

“That was because his old school mate, who also happened to be a convicted mass-murderer was on the loose.” _School mate?_

Harry stopped and considered this for a second, realising that he was facing a losing battle.

“Fine, you can keep the map, just don’t get caught.”

“I can’t believe I forgot about the map.” Mary said, “they only told us about it in the last term of school, I mean Lily already knew. But the amount of dirt they had on people because of it, was staggering.”

“Oh, tell me about it.” Teddy laughed, and leant back on his chair, “it’s brilliant.”

“Anyway, there’s your Dad, as I’m sure you can tell.” She said, looking at Teddy and pointing at Remus in the photo. “Apparently it was his idea to make the map in the first place, hence why his name is on it first.”

Teddy and Harry exchanged looks of mild shock, but then they considered this for a moment and seemed to come to the conclusion that that did make sense.

“He was a very private person, as you can probably guess.” She continued. “This often led people to the assumption that he was the responsible one in the group, but they were very wrong about that.” She chuckled to herself, remembering Remus being incredibly smug when James, Sirius and Peter got the blame for something he did. It was actually James who made sure that no one went off the rails, he was very much the mother-hen.

"Don’t tell my husband this, but I had a massive crush on Remus when I was younger.” She looked up and saw the look of outright horror on her children’s faces.

“Mum, what the hell,” Dorcas said, putting her head in her hands.

“Let a girl live. I was young once too, you know.” She said, “and anyway, I got over it pretty quickly. He and Sirius made a good team, so I wasn’t that hurt by it all.”

“ _What_?” Harry and Teddy exclaimed at the same time.

She thought this might be the case.

“Wait, was my dad gay?” Teddy said, running his hands through his hair and his eyebrows were furrowed in confusion.

“No, no. He went both ways.” Mary clarified, “Sirius was though, much the entire straight female population at Hogwarts’ disappointment, not that they knew, of course. They were both very careful about it all; I suppose they had to be, not exactly surprised you didn’t know about it.”

“You know, now that you say that, thinking back it does make a lot of sense,” Harry said, mulling this over. “They did give me a joint Christmas present in fifth year.”

“Were they together after Azkaban then?” Teddy asked, still very confused, understandably so.

“Hmm, not too sure. I assumed so.” She said, trying to rack her brain for any solidifying information, but coming up short; however, she couldn't think of anything that pointed to the contrary. “I only saw your Dad once after that, and I hadn’t seen Sirius since, as he wasn’t allowed to leave his old house, which he wasn’t very happy about.”

“They thought each other were the spy though?” Teddy said.

“Well, the war was a difficult time, and we knew that there was a spy, but didn’t know who. Your Dad was sent on a lot of missions for weeks at a time that he couldn’t tell anyone about, including Sirius. It started to get to them, it got to all of us.” She felt a lump rise up in her throat, even now she couldn’t quite comprehend what they all went through.

Far too young, far too stupid, and far, far too brave.

How, out of all these people, these brilliant and talented people, was she the only one left.

“Sorry, you probably don’t want to talk about that” Teddy added, hurriedly.

“Don’t worry, it’s fine love.” She waved him off, she understood that he was trying to get his head around this new piece of information.

“Could you tell me more about Sirius?” Harry asked.

“Of course, where to begin.” She laughed. “He always acted out on impulse and gave a damn about the consequences later.” She looked up at Harry, “He and your Dad were a force to be reckoned with, drove poor McGonagall up the wall.” She remembered the time they filled her entire office with catnip, though she decided not to mention that to Teddy or to the young James so that they wouldn’t get any ideas.

“Despite that, he cared an awful lot and dealt with a lot himself, as you can imagine. He thought the world of James and the Potter’s, especially after they took him in after he left the Black’s, so it still blows my mind that there wasn’t a trial. He did secretly care for his brother as well; he always kept an eye on him. He and Remus got together in their sixth year, it was very sweet, but Marls and I didn’t work it out until the camping trip.” She said pointing to the photo, “although, like you said Harry, thinking back, it did make a lot of sense. They balanced each other out well, Remus was the only person whose opinion he always listened to.”

Harry nodded and smiled,

“What about Dorcas and Marlene?” He asked, looking at the two girls sat next to her and Lily. “I don’t know anything about them, other than they fought and died in the war. I didn’t even know that they knew my parents well.”

“Yeah, well, Marlene was my best friend, Dorcas was a lot closer with Lily. Despite being in a different house, we got along from the first day in the first year. Marls was a lot like your Dad and Sirius in the respect that she wasn’t exactly afraid to cause trouble. She was very ambitious and incredibly funny, didn’t take shit from anyone, sorry kids. She became a chaser for the Holly Head Harpies and even competed in the world cup when she was only nineteen.”

“Oh yes, I know about her,” Ginny said, stirring her cup of tea. “She is an absolute legend in the Harpies, her poster is still up in the tunnel leading onto the pitch. She’s a real inspiration, I look up to her a lot.”

“Yeah, she’d like that, always wanted to make a name for herself outside of the war.”

“I don’t know why you expected me to turn out anything but a Quidditch player and a raging lesbian, considering you named me after her,” Marlene said, from next to her.

“Well, I didn’t expect you to turn out as anything in particular, it was a nice surprise.”

“Wait, was Marlene gay as well?” Teddy asked, still trying to process the information about his own Dad.

“Yeah, so was Dorcas, they were together as well. We were a bunch of hippies really.” Mary said, looking fondly over at her old friends on the photograph.

“Well, we’re all a bit gay, aren’t we?” Harry said, then realising that his kids were there, “I’m just saying, Cedric Diggory and Bill Weasley are beautiful men.”

“Urgh, don’t say that, that’s Victoire’s dad,” Teddy said.

“And my brother!” Ginny added, laughing slightly.

“Ginny, we’ve spoken about this, it was a passing thought.”

“Oh, I’m leaving. I do not want to hear about this.” James got up and put his fingers in his ears. “la la la la la” He went over to the kitchen to fill up his glass of water and then returned, still glaring at his father. Harry just shrugged.

“Sorry about that, what were you saying about Dorcas?” Harry quickly said, eager to move the subject matter along.

She just laughed, this was all very familiar to how she and her friends once were, it was nice to be back in this sort of dynamic.

“Of course, Dorcas was probably the quietest out of all of us, but she was also the fiercest. She was a naturally gifted dueller, and no one wanted to get on the wrong side of her. She was deeply kind and was in Auror training during the war. She couldn’t stand for any injustice that was happening in the world around her and was always willing to be on the front line.”

“Wow, it’s a shame really, that we never really hear much about these people anymore,” Harry said, looking at her warmly, but with a glint of sadness in his eyes.

"There's a memorial at Hogwarts." Teddy said, taking the photograph and looking at it, "although, that's mainly for the second war."

“It is, but not many people like to talk about it. It was dark times, and in the end, we didn't really win. But, now all of you know about them, and I’m still kicking around, then they’ll never be truly gone as long as we keep telling their stories, should have come by much sooner, this has been nice.”

“There's still plenty of time, there are still three boxes to get through,” Harry smiled, gesturing towards the boxes that they had barely touched.

They stayed and chatted for a while longer until it went dark, not just about her old friends, but about their current lives in general.

"You must come back again soon," Harry said, waving them out of the door.

And she did.

Every month or so, Mary and occasionally with Marlene and Dorcas, came to the Potter household and they made their way through the boxes, revealing new tales, memories, and life lessons for the younger generations to enjoy. There was a noticeable lack of Peter mentioned in their anecdotes, but he didn’t deserve to be mentioned amongst the likes of James Potter, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, Lily Evans, Marlene McKinnon and Dorcas Meadowes, and even old Mary MacDonald.

Originally Mary only went to the Potters, after hearing from Molly, to tell Harry and Teddy a little bit about their parents and then never see them again, however the first time she walked through the front door, she realised that the boys that were half her age, sat in front of her, had given her old friends back. As the months went by, she even brought things from her own house for them to see. They became a family, bonded through the pain that both of the wars had caused them. They exchanged Christmas and birthday presents every year, Mary even went back to Hogwarts and gave a talk so Harry’s seventh years about the war.

***

“You okay?” Ginny asked Harry on Halloween a couple of months after their original meeting with Mary.

They were stood in the graveyard in Godrics Hollow, in front of the statue of his mother and father. It was late evening and the usual crowd who came and paid their respects had been and gone. Every year there were less and less.

“Yeah, yeah, I’m fine.” He said, smiling down at Ginny, holding onto her arm tight, he breathed in a shaky breath.

“It’s just, they feel different now, like real people, no longer a distant memory.”

**Author's Note:**

> I have absolutely no idea what inclined me to write this, but here we are.  
> Did I cry, yes  
> Did I procrastinate my college work, yes  
> Was it worth it, probably not


End file.
